Zimbabué

A long stroll down Avenida do Zimbabwe (strangely not spelt the Portuguese way) for a lunchtime meeting of pork meatball pho and properly percolated Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk.

The meeting was with a woman working in the conservation sector in Mozambique for many years, who is a great source of info and we collaborate together on various initiatives. The potentially awkward issue is that, due to shoddy HR practices in Tanzania that broadcasted the names of all candidates to the other candidates, we know that we both applied for the role I am now in. We usually manage to dance around the topic.

It’s my niece’s second birthday so I called her, fresh from a visit to the zoo. She was replicating the erratic swimming style of a penguin around the kitchen using a newly acquired penguin cuddly toy. She made a fair attempt. Penguins are ever so ungainly on land aren’t they.

Georgia also showed me some new dress up shoes (parents may know what these are) a sticker book, and a toy ambulance. In general it was interesting trying to get the attention of a kiddywink as an ageing relative. I don’t think blaring down the phone to relatives is the activity of choice for young’uns awash with birthday presents. They’d much rather be setting off the siren on a toy ambulance.